Mother of one believes she will never own her own home — and Budget 2025 did nothing to help
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Doireann Barrett is all too familiar with the arduous process of finding a place to call home in this day and age — an ordeal she describes as both “heartbreaking and humiliating".
It was with a heavy heart that she absorbed the details of Budget 2025 which she fears may have dashed the hopes of single parents like herself desperate to access the property ladder.
At 45, the mother of one said has been living in her parents' house for two and a half years and is preparing to move into a council home. While the news came as a relief, she maintains that Budget 2025 should have featured a stronger emphasis on home ownership.
The extension of the help-to-buy scheme until the end of 2029 was among the measures announced. The scheme was introduced to assist in first-time buyers purchasing a house or apartment as well as one-off self-build homes and providing a tax rebate of up to €30,000.
However, Doireann expressed concerns that this will be unattainable to many unable to afford the astronomical prices of new builds.
The Government is also investing €1.25bn into the Land Development Agency (LDA) for the provision of social and affordable homes.
"When I realised that I wouldn’t get approved for another mortgage, I learned that the terms had changed for council houses. You can’t buy any more," Doireann said.
"Even if I was able to buy off the council, that would be huge for me because eventually I’d have my own house.
"It’s another form of wasted money.
"You are spending money to live somewhere you’ll never own. The council don’t provide flooring so I have to lay the floor in addition to buying the appliances and wardrobes.
"I can take the appliances and wardrobes with me but the things that I can’t come at a high cost. It’s not that we are looking for handouts. In this situation I had to go down this route.
Doireann’s situation is a far cry from 24 years ago when she was celebrating after receiving the keys to her first home.
With a mortgage at 22, and a son at 23, the Tralee woman’s future once looked bright.
What she didn’t count on was being diagnosed with a crippling illness shortly after selling her home in 2015. The situation meant she had to move in with a friend before sourcing a home to rent above a service station. This worked out slightly more costly than her previous mortgage payments each month.
Her health issues continued to spiral and in 2016, Doireann underwent major surgery. It came as a devastating blow, scuppering plans to start a new life with her son in Australia.
Fast forward almost a decade and Doireann is preparing to finally move out of her family home where she has been living for the last two and a half years.
After becoming the director of her father’s estate agency at the age of just 26, it was a situation she never expected to find herself in. She was relieved to learn that, after spending six and a half years on the list for a council property, a home had become available. She is set to move into the property in the coming months.
Doireann revealed that the challenges surrounding her accommodation status in recent years adversely impacted her health:
"I am lucky to have a good relationship with my mum.
"The problem was that I was pulled back into childhood in my 40s, having had a mortgage at the age of 22. There were three generations of adults in the house and that was hard.
"It was hard for my parents too.
"When I was recovering I didn’t have my own comforts or my own space. I felt like I had failed at life even though I know that I haven't."